Modern electrical power plants often utilize turbine generators to produce electricity. During operation, these generators produce large amounts of heat which must be dissipated in order for the generators to operate at maximum efficiency. Traditionally, air was used as a cooling medium to help dissipate the heat. However, as generator capacity and size increased, hydrogen replaced air due to its high heat capacity and low density. Additionally, the use of hydrogen reduces the windage or friction losses over comparably sized air cooled units.
Due to the loss in efficiency from windage, it is desirable to maintain as high a purity level of the hydrogen in the generator. As shown in FIG. 1, as the windage loss increases due to impurities, the financial loss to the power plant correspondingly increases. For a 800 MW generator, an 8% decrease in the purity of the hydrogen in the generator increases the cost of producing electricity by almost $4000 per day. Accordingly, it is desirable to maintain as high a level of purity as possible.
While the generator is in operation, hydrogen is continuously lost due to leaks in seals. Traditionally, to maintain the appropriate level of pressure and purity in the generator, the power plant operator would purchase hydrogen gas in bulk from gas producers who delivered the gas in cylinders or by tanker truck. The operator would periodically check the purity level and add hydrogen from the hydrogen gas cylinders as needed.
As an alternative to using bulk purchased hydrogen gas, power plant operators have also used electrolysis gas generators which allow the operator to produce hydrogen gas on-site. The electrolysis generators use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gas. The use of electrolysis typically reduced the cost of using hydrogen and also reduced the security concerns of the power plants in having to receive and store large quantities of a flammable gas. Typically, however, the electrolysis generators which are economically viable for providing makeup gas for the electrical generator lacked the capacity to produce sufficient volumes of hydrogen to quickly purge or fill the electrical generator after it had been shut down for maintenance. Also, plant operators still relied on manual filling of the generators which did not allow for optimal efficiencies.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a system for maintaining high purity levels of hydrogen in an electrical power generator and for providing a means for utilizing an on-site hydrogen generator to produce sufficient hydrogen to purge or fill the electrical power generator.